The Political House that Jack Built, a radical political satire by William Hone and George Cruikshank

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William Hone’s radical pamphlet attacked the authoritarian nature of the British government; based on the nursery rhyme ‘The House that Jack Built’, it satirises lawyers, the church, the monarchy and the army, and on the front page proposes that writing is more powerful than force. It was published in the year of the Peterloo Massacre and of the subsequent legislation known as the Six Acts, which made mass meetings illegal and toughened the laws against seditious publications.

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